SCYTHE and SICKLE. Till the invention of the reaping machine, which came into practical use only about the middle of the 19th century, scythes and sickles were the sole reaping implements. The scythe is worked with two hands with a swinging motion, while the sickle or reaping hook is held in one hand and the reaper bends and cuts the crop with a shearing or hitting motion. Of the two the sickle is the more ancient, and indeed there is some reason to conclude that its use is coeval with the cultivation of grain crops. Among the remains of the later Stone period in Great Britain and on the European continent curved flint knives have occasionally been found the form of which has led to the suggestion that they were used as sickles. Sickles of bronze occur quite commonly among remains of the early inhabitants of Europe. Some of these are deeply curved hooks, flat on the under-side, and with a strengthening ridge or back on the upper surface, while others are small curved knives, in form like the ordinary hedge-bill. Among the ancient Egyptians toothed or serrated sickles of both bronze and iron were used. Ancient Roman drawings show that both the scythe and the sickle were known to that people, and Pliny makes the distinction plain. extensive domains; for there they cut their grass only in the middle, and pass over the shorter blades. The Italian mowers cut with the right hand only” (II. N., xviii. 67). ] Although both implements have lost much of their importance since the general introduction of mowing and reaping machinery, they are still used very extensively, especially in those countries where small agricultural holdings prevail. The principal modern forms are the toothed hook, the scythe hook, the Hainault scythe, and the common scythe. The toothed hook, which was ...